


it's a cruel summer

by rweoutofthewoods



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Celebrity, Based on a Taylor Swift Song, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Celebrities, Dancer Keith (Voltron), Foster Kid Keith (Voltron), Foster kid Shiro, Gay Keith (Voltron), Lance (voltron) is a pop star, M/M, Multi-media fic, New York City, North Jersey, Shiro was adopted by the Holts, Slow Burn, Songwriter Lance, Stripper Keith (Voltron), alfor and coran are married, stripper matt (voltron)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-05
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:49:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21683248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rweoutofthewoods/pseuds/rweoutofthewoods
Summary: One summer can change your life, right?But the thing is Keith is pretty happy with his life, he has a family (sort of) a job he enjoys, and all he wants is to work his summer away and earn enough money to pay his college tuition and graduate.He doesn't need his life to change. But it does anyway.By some crazy stroke of fate, Keith is thrown into a glamorous, dark, and twisted world of the entertainment industry, and along the way, he meets quite a few successful celebrities who maybe aren't living the perfect golden life they seem to be.Most intriguing of all though is super pop star Lance Mclain, who Keith somehow becomes hopelessly intertwined with.They live in different worlds, but maybe their problems aren't so different.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 31
Kudos: 69





	1. fever dream high in the quiet of the night

Keith didn’t grow up in New Jersey. He didn’t grow up anywhere actually, not to say that he’s a clone who was manufactured in a lab and came to life at an adult age. No, he just never had anything permanent. He didn’t have a place to call home.

Keith spent his time growing up in foster care, jumping from place to place until at fifteen he was dropped in a home in north Jersey where his foster parents were somehow patient enough that they didn’t mind housing a young rebellious delinquent like Keith with two stints in juvie on his record. In fact, they delighted in it, which Keith found to be a bit crazy, but if Coran and Alfor were anything they were certainly insane.

They didn’t shy away from Keith, but they didn’t treat him as a challenge like some of his other foster parents had, they never saw Keith as something to fix. They just wanted him to have a good life.

Eventually, Keith began to let Coran and Alfor in, as weird as he found them at fifteen, they wormed their way into his heart. They’d never adopted Keith, they knew he didn’t want that. But they had become his parents in every way but on paper. Now at nineteen and aged out of the foster system, Keith still lived with them even though he wasn’t their responsibility anymore.

Keith’s life may have not been remarkable, but he’d made a life for himself that he was happy with. He went to the local university with a major in Sound Engineering and a minor in Music and Entertainment Industry and it was his goal to go into the music industry as a producer. When he was younger he dreamed of being a celebrity, of getting signed to a record label and getting to be a star. But he’d long ago given up the idea of being an artist himself, it was a pipe-dream, unrealistic. Just something for him to cling to when he was alone and without anything solid.

It had taken a lot of convincing from Alfor and Coran for him to even decide to pursue a career in music at all, but here he was.

Keith refused to let his former foster parents pay for his school, they were already letting him stay with them through college even though they no longer received any money from the state to care for him, so Keith felt the least he could do was put himself through college, unfortunately, no retail or minimum wage job was really going to cut it and Keith knew going into school that working multiple jobs while doing a major and a minor was too much work.

However, in his first semester that’s exactly what he did.

It was rough, to say the least, up until one day when Keith was talking to his friend Matt and he mentioned how he worked one job that was enough to pay for his school. Keith immediately was interested.

Keith was shocked to find out that Matt was… an exotic dancer.

He didn’t seem like the type for it, he was a nerd. But Keith supposed he was stereotyping and accepted it with a shrug.

“Well guess that won’t really help me,” Keith had said prepared to move on with their conversation and his two jobs.

“Why not? I mean my club is looking for new dancers, if it’s something you’re interested in then I can totally put in a good word for you, you’re like a performer right? You’d totally rock it with your bad boy aesthetic.”

“Oh, firstly I don’t have a bad boy aesthetic” Keith frowned, Matt rolled his eyes at that clearly not buying it “Secondly, I mean I’m a sound engineering major, it’s behind the scenes stuff, not performing.”

“But,” Matt wiggled his eyebrows “You’ve mentioned wanting to be a performer when you were younger.”

“Well, yeah…” Keith admitted.

“Perfect, then you should totally give it a try,”

“I don’t know,” Keith said still not convinced.

“C’mon,” Matt urged “I can tell you’re interested. And what’s the worst that could happen, you don’t get the job? That’s the same thing that would happen if you never gave it a shot at all.”

“Okay, okay! Fine.” Keith gave in.

“Yes!” Matt shot a hand in the air triumphantly “Oh my god, it’ would be so fun working with you.”

“Do not tell Alfor and Coran, okay?”

“Fine, I won’t. But just saying, your parents are totally chill, they’d be fine with it.

Keith didn’t even bother to correct Matt about how Alfor and Coran weren’t his parents “Still, I don’t think they need to know.”

Matt shrugged “Okay, that’s your decision.”

So that’s how Keith became a stripper. It’s not where he’d ever seen himself going with his life, but it got him through school and… Keith found he actually really enjoyed it.

He’d given up his dream of performing, but being up on a stage in any way, shape, or form, it gave Keith a thrill that he craved. Not only that, but it was nice to work with Matt. Keith never really made friends at work before, he saw it as a way to make money and nothing more. But it was impossible not to make friends at the club, his fellow dancers at Blade pounced on Keith as soon as he landed the job insisting they were going to give him the ‘best social life ever’ after Matt had told them that Keith was a hermit.

Keith had definitely gone out way more than he wanted to since he began working at Blade, but for the first time since he could remember he had real friends, besides just Matt and his old friend Axca.

The employees at the club were a family, a team, they looked out for each other.

The summer before Keith’s senior year of college finance got a little tight. He’d been in an accident that spring which not only totaled his bike, which was his only transportation, he also wound up with a broken leg putting him out of work for a while. So by the time he was able to go back to work again he was willing to do just about anything to make a little extra money, this was how it all started really.

Matt came into work one night announcing to Keith that he had a possible job for him, it was easy enough but paid a lot.

“What is it?” Keith had asked.

“Waitstaff for some big event. My sister knows some super famous chef who’s in charge of the catering and a bunch of their severs or whatever caught some virus and now they have like a day to get new people. So my sister asked me if I knew anyone who could do it on short notice, I figured you were a waiter for a while at that fancy restaurant and looking for extra money.” Matt said all of this at his usual rambling speed but Keith knew him long enough that he was used to it at this point.

“Okay, I’ll do it.”

“Cool I’ll let my sister know, she can pass your info along to the catering people.”

“Sure,” Keith shrugged “sounds good.”

“Can I come with you for dinner at your parents' place tonight?” Matt asked changing topics in an instant.

Keith sighed “They’re not my parents,” Keith reminded Matt for the millionth time but it fell on deaf ears, he never listened. “But that’s fine I guess. Just please don’t talk too much about our job.”

“But they’re cool about it! I’m so jealous my family has never been accepting of me being a stripper.” Matt put on a high-pitched mocking voice “I had ‘such a bright future, I was so smart and I threw it all away to be a slut’ ugh.”

Keith patted his friend's shoulder comfortingly “There’s nothing wrong with being a stripper.”

“Well that’s easy for you to say, you’re a stripper too you dumbass!”

Keith just shrugged.

\--

Honestly, Keith didn’t know much about Matt’s sister. Keith knew her name was Pidge (which was a very weird name, but he let it slide because his own former foster parents were named Alfor and Coran), but that was just about all he knew about her. Matt didn’t have a good relationship with his family, he didn’t talk about it much, but apparently something had happened right before Matt graduated high school, he was supposed to go to Oriande which Keith knew was an Ivy League university, but at the last moment Matt had withdrawn and moved to North Jersey for some ungodly reason and decided to go to the same school as Keith, Arus University. Matt, who had formerly been close with his sister lost that relationship.

So Keith didn’t know what to expect with this job. But he was contacted by some woman named Romelle who quickly reviewed Keith’s prior experience before hiring him on the spot and then giving him an address to meet up the next day so he could go over what to expect.

Just before hanging up Romelle said, _“Thanks again, it would be terrible if we’d ruined the Voltron Gala just because of a stupid virus.”_

Keith choked at that but before he could ask if Romelle had really said what Keith thought she had, she’d hung up.

In a state of panic Keith quickly called Matt.

_“What’s up?”_ Matt greeted.

“That _event_ I’m working as a waiter at is the Voltron Gala!” Keith said, “why didn’t you mention that?”

_“Oh, I didn’t realize it was important to mention.”_

“It is! The Voltron Gala is for celebrities, famous rich people, I worked at McDonald’s and some stupid over-priced restaurant. I’m not prepared for this.”

_“Nah, it’ll be fine, you’re just giving people food, it’s not the big of a deal really, I mean, my sister’s famous.”_

“Your- what?” Keith sputtered.

“Have I never mentioned that?”

“No, you _haven’t_.” Keith hissed.

_“Oh, well whatever. I have to take a nap before work tonight, I’ll talk to you later.”_

Matt hung up before Keith could protest, Keith tossed his phone to the side and collapsed on his bed with a groan.

Hopefully, this wasn’t going to be as much of a disaster as Keith was afraid it would be.

\--

Everything was _a mess_.

Keith dodged people left and right as he headed down the narrow hallway that led to the kitchens at the concert hall The Voltron Gala was being hosted at this year.

Somehow he made it into the small room just off the kitchen where Romelle’s most recent email had said to meet. As soon as Keith walked in he was accosted by a young woman with long blonde hair that was in braids which were coming loose, there was a pen tucked behind her ear.

“Are you one of our servers?” She asked brandishing a clipboard erratically.

“Yes,”

“Name?”

“Keith Kogane.”

“Ah yes, Keith! We talked on the phone, I’m Romelle. I remember that you’ve never worked anything like this before, but don’t worry! We’ll tell you everything you need to know to navigate working the gala.”

“Okay, thank you.”

“Of course!” She flipped through some papers on her slip board before pulling out a nametag “Here, put this on and go take a seat beside the rest of the staff over there.”

Keith did what he was told sticking on the name tag and sitting down.

\--

After everything was explained to them Keith found he wasn’t so nervous anymore, it wasn’t so different from the other jobs he’d had (except maybe dancing), working was working. Even the fancy uniform with the tie was similar to what he’d had to wear for his past job as a waiter at a fancy restaurant.

So Keith took the situation in stride really.

Well, mostly…

Twenty minutes before they were supposed to get out there and serve dinner Keith’s nerves came back, he was so far out of his comfort zone. There were going to be celebrities out there wearing outfits that cost more than Keith’s college tuition. That was intimidating.

Keith was hiding out in an area just off the kitchen trying to calm himself down when someone came in.

“Hey, you alright man?”

Keith spun surprised to see anyone else there. “Oh… yeah.” Keith said, “Just a little nervous I got brought on as staff at the last minute and I’ve never worked something like this before.” He admitted.

“Aw, yeah. It’s a little scary. I’ve been a part of this world for years now and I still get nervous too. Like what if I mess up the food, y’know? The Voltron Gala is a big deal, but my friend always says that since these are events full of A list celebrities, one of them is bound to do something big or embarrassing that makes the news, it’s like a given at award show or event like this, so if I mess up no one will even remember it compared to the Kardashians or whatever.”

“Oh, that’s… strangely comforting.”

“Yeah, I find it puts things in perspective a bit.”

“Thanks,”

“You’re welcome,” The man held his hand out “I’m Hunk by the way.”

Keith took his hand shaking it “I’m Keith. You’re the chef aren’t you?”

“Oh yeah, I am.”

“Shouldn’t you be out there?”

“Probably, but the rest of my staff will survive being in the kitchen without me for a moment, plus my friend Pidge is in there and no one will dare step out of line with her around.”

“Pidge? Matt’s sister?”

Hunk looked surprised “Uh, yeah. That’s right. You know her?”

“No, no. I don’t, I’m a friend of her brother’s, Matt.”

“Matt? Pidge’s elusive brother, you know him?”

Keith snorted “Elusive? I don’t know about that, Matt is a dork.”

“Isn’t he a stripper?”

“Yes,” Keith made a face “just because somebody’s a stripper doesn’t mean they’re not a dork. One of the dancers I work with, Ezor, she’s literally the definition of a dork. She does math for fun, but she’s also one of our best dancers.”

“Oh, so are you…”

“A stripper too? Yeah, not where I thought I’d be in life, but whatever. I take it as it comes.”

“Oh, well that’s cool. But if you’re a stripper than how’d you come to be working here tonight? Don’t strippers make a lot?” Hunk asked.

“I got into a motorbike accident, was out of work for a while. My last year of school is coming up and I gotta pay for it somehow, so I’ve been working extra this summer.” Keith didn’t really know why he was telling Hunk all this but something about the guy made Keith feel at ease, he rarely warmed up to people this fast but Hunk was so nice it was almost impossible for Keith not to.

“Oh man,” Hunk winced “That’s rough, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, I’m managing.”

The door was thrust to the room open suddenly “Hunk, we need you out here.” Some guy yelled.

“Oh, well it looks like I’ve gotta go, good luck out there today Keith.”

\--

It was past midnight when Romelle told the waitstaff to go home, the night had gone by without incident and somehow Keith had avoided spilling anything on a celeb’s thousand dollar outfit.

Now Keith had shed his vest slinging it over his shoulder and unbuttoning the top few buttons of his white shirt, which had been digging into his neck all night.

Keith wasn’t looking forward to commuting out of the city and back home, but there was nothing he could do about it. He’d just have to suck it up and deal.

Keith grabbed his things from the locker he’d been directed to earlier and prepared to head out. He used his shoulder to push open the swinging door to the kitchen figuring he’d cut through there to get to the back exit quicker.

But instead of being met with an empty kitchen like Keith had expected there was a small gaggle of people gathered there chatting.

They were dressed incredibly nicely which told Keith that they’d probably been guests at the gala tonight.

Keith didn’t gather too much about the other people, there was a tall woman with dark skin and platinum hair that Keith recognized from TV and a Latino guy that Keith knew was a pop star though Keith couldn’t remember his name. There was someone else standing behind that guy, but they were too short for Keith to make out any detail. And of course, Hunk was also there.

“Keith!” Hunk greeted happily spotting him.

“Oh, hey Hunk,” Keith said a little uncomfortable as the chatting stopped and the very well dressed people turned to see who Hunk was talking to.

“How did today go?”

Keith shrugged “I didn’t spill anything on anyone so I count it as a success.”

Hunk laughed “That’s always a plus.”

“Yeah,”

“Are you heading out?” Hunk asked smiling warmly.

“Oh yeah, I gotta get home”

“Do you live in the city?”

“Nah, Jersey.”

“Oh, that’s lovely.”

“Not really, I live in north Jersey it’s a shithole,” Keith said dryly.

“Oh well… yeah. Kind of.” Hunk admitted.

“Yeah, no need to be nice about, everyone who lives in north Jersey hates it, well except for Matt. He loves it. But he’s a dumbass so I don’t really feel like he gets a say.”

“Oh!” One of the people in the room said. It was the person he couldn’t see earlier. She pushed forward to stand next to Hunk. “You’re my brother’s friend?”

“Oh, I mean if you’re Pidge then yes. You look exactly like Matt.”

“I know.” She stepped closer examining Keith “How do you know my brother?”

“Um, we go to school together,” Keith said shifting under her analytic gaze.

“You go to Arus University?”

“Yes,”

“What’s your major?”

“Sound Engineering and a minor in Music and Entertainment Industry,”

“You’re a musician? Do you work in music?”

Keith snorted “Not really, and no.”

“Then what do you do?”

“I’m a dancer,” Keith said his default answer for when people asked about his job.

“What kind of dancing? Hip hop or something?”

“No,” Keith sighed “I’m a fucking stripper.”

She titled her head “Oh, do you work with Matt?”

“Yes, he’s the one who got me the job in the first place.”

“You know stripping isn’t really a legitimate career.”

“Tell that to my paycheck,” Keith said stiffly, he really wasn’t liking Matt’s sister so far.

“But if you’re getting paid well enough for it to be a legit career why did you take this job as a waiter tonight?”

“I was in an accident that put me out of work for a while, I needed the extra money.”

“Why were you in an accident? Are you a reckless driver?”

“No, a drunk guy didn’t see me on my bike and he hit me.”

“Were you in the bike lane?”

“I was on my motorcycle, not that kind of bike.”

Pidge opened her mouth no doubt to ask something else but Keith cut her off “Look, why are you interrogating me? I have to work tomorrow night and I need to get home to sleep.”

“I’m just trying to figure out what kind of company Matt keeps.” She said crossing her arms defensively.

“Then ask him,” Keith said irritated.

“We… don’t really talk.” She said frowning like that was somehow Keith’s fault.

“You asked him to find someone to help out with this.”

“Yeah, but we don’t talk much besides the basic stuff and non-personal things.”

Keith sighed “Look Pidge that sucks. I’m sorry really, family is rough,” he shrugged “but your relationship with Matt is probably something you should work on with him rather than drilling his best friend.”

She rubbed her eyes tiredly smearing her mascara “Okay, you’re right. I’m sorry. It’s been a long night.”

“Oh, uh. That’s okay. I understand. But please let me go home now.”

“Yes, go. Sorry.”

Keith nodded, gave Hunk a quick wave before heading out.

\--

Keith tried for thirty minutes to get a taxi home before he realized the chance of him being able to get one anytime soon was slim.

“Fuck!” Keith cursed in frustration.

“Having issues?”

Keith whirled around to see the guy that had been with Hunk earlier, the pop star.

“I can’t get a taxi,” Keith admitted.

“Well, I’m not sure what you expected. There are hundreds of people leaving the gala, tons of staff. You’d have had to book it out of there earlier and then fight to the death Hunger Games style to get one.”

Keith rolled his eyes “You know what, fuck you.” He was tired, hungry, and frustrated. Honestly, you couldn’t really blame him for taking it out a little on the annoying celebrity.

“What, you got something against The Hunger Games?”

“Maybe I’m just fucking tired of standing out in the disgusting New York City air.”

“Aw, then you got something against the city?”

“No.” Keith said probably a little too defensively “I was born here.” He didn’t know why he told this random celebrity this, but for some reason he did.

“So? Lots of people hate where they were born. And c’mon, most New Yorkers won’t see you as a real New Yorker unless you hate the city at least partly.”

“I wouldn’t know. I’m not a New Yorker.”

“But you were born here?”

“Yes,”

“So what, you grow up in North Jersey then, you a Jersey boy?”

“I live in Jersey, I didn’t grow up there.”

“So where did you grow up?”

“Nowhere specific, I lived a lot of places.”

“What you don’t have a hometown?”

“I live in Jersey.”

“Yeah, you say you _live_ there. But it’s not your home?”

“It kind of is, I have family there… well, sort of.”

“Sort of?”

“What’s up with you celebrities and drilling me on shit? I get it with Pidge, I’m her brother’s friends, but why is my life so interesting to _you_?”

The pop star shrugged “I find you intriguing.”

“Oh well then, a celebrity thinks I’m intriguing I guess I can just die now,” Keith said sarcasm dripping from his words.

“You know, talking with you is kind of like talking to a brick wall, except at least brick walls don’t insult me and glare.”

“You spend a lot of time talking to brick walls?” Keith raised an eyebrow unimpressed.

“Look, I think we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot, I’m Lance.” He held out a hand.

Keith sighed “Mclain right? The singer, I remember now, hearing you on the radio. I’m Keith.”

“Yup, Mclain. I’m flattered you’ve heard of me.”

“You’re famous, that’s literally what it is, people knowing who you are.”

“Well, yes, but you don’t seem to be impressed by that.”

“Should I be?”

“Probably not.”

“At least you’re honest.”

“It’s one of my best traits.”

Before Keith was even registering what he was doing he shot Lance his _look_. It was a very specific look, one he usually saved for work. It was cool and disinterested, Matt insisted it was basically saying: “I may think you’re hot or I may hate you, but I dare you to come find out”. Keith thought that was very specific. But he knew it drew people in like nothing else, some people like that, the appeal of danger, pain. It played into the bad boy persona Keith used in his performances. And he’d just fucking used it on Lance.

Apparently, though he was one of those people that found it alluring. He froze for a moment under Keith’s gaze before shaking his head and coming back to himself a little flustered.

“Well uh, if you want a ride I can get a car to take you home.”

Keith’s mouth fell open “Seriously?”

“Yeah, I’ll text my guys and they can get another car sent.”

“Oh uh, thanks.”

Lance smiled “It’s no problem.”


	2. don't take this as complaining, just little rearrangements

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from Hold Tight by Sabrina Carpenter.

As a car pulled up Lance motioned to it. “This one’s for you, just give Dante your address and he’ll get you home safe.”

“Dante?”

“The driver, duh.” Lance rolled his eyes and Keith suppressed a sigh, he shouldn’t be rude to the person who was getting him home. “Also,” Lance continued “give me your phone number.”

“Why?”

“So, I can check to make sure you got home safe later.”

“I thought you said Dante would get me home safe.”

“I mean, he probably will.”

“Probably?” Keith raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, give me your number.”

For the second time, Keith found himself trying not to sigh. “Okay fine.”

Lance pulled out a very expensive and classy looking phone which was completely ruined by the fact that it was covered by various shark and kitten stickers stuck everywhere. Keith took the phone and quickly put his number and name into Lance’s contacts.

“Kogane?” Lance asked looking at the contact as Keith handed it back to him.

“Yeah, why?”

“I don’t know, it’s a cool last name, it sounds really familiar, but I don’t know why, I’ve never known anyone with the same name before.”

“Uh, thanks? I’ve never known anyone with the name either, besides myself, so I guess it’s unique.”

“What your family doesn’t have the same last name?”

“Um, no.”

Thankfully Lance seemed to understand that this particular subject wasn’t something Keith wanted to talk about and didn’t ask why.

“Okay well you should probably get going, don’t want to be out too late.”

“Okay,” Keith turned to step into the car that was waiting but paused for a moment looking back at Lance “Uh thanks a lot for the car, Lance.”

“No problem, but really thank _you_.”

Keith raised his eyebrows “What are you thanking me for?”

“For insulting me, I need to keep my ego in check and my friends have been too busy to be rude to me lately.”

Keith made a face “You’re weird you know.”

“I do know, thanks.”

Keith shook his head and with one last wave, he ducked into the car shutting the door.

\--

Lance threw himself on the couch in Hunk’s loft with a loud dramatic sigh. His friends were all immersed in work, Pidge was on the phone chatting with her publicist, and Shiro was typing seriously on his laptop, Hunk was hunched over a notebook planning out a new recipe, who knew where Allura was, probably off somewhere being super successful and drop-dead gorgeous as usual.

When none of his friends acknowledged Lance sighed again this time louder.

“What’s wrong Lance?” Shiro asked not glancing up from his laptop.

“He never texted me,” Lance said sadly.

“Who?”

“that waiter, Keith. I talked to him outside after the gala the other night and he never texted me.”

“I don’t know who that is since I wasn’t at the gala, but text him first then,” Shiro replied.

“What do I say?”

“I don’t know,” Shiro said with a shrug “Maybe try hello?”

Lance pulled out his phone quickly sent Keith a text. “Okay, I texted him,” Lance said after a moment.

Shiro looked over “What did you say?”

“Are you dead?”

There was a moment of silence and Shiro turned to give Lance a look of exasperation Pidge who’d just hung up her phone said “Seriously.” And Hunk shook his head.

“What?” Pidge asked jumping up from his place on the couch to glare at his friend’s disapproving expressions.

“Why would you ask that? Couldn’t you just say hi like a normal functioning person.”

“Keith already knows I’m not a functioning person, he insulted me like ten times in the short conversation we had.”

“I approve of Keith,” Pidge said.

“I thought you didn’t like him. You acted pretty hostile towards him.” Lance pointed out.

“I was trying to figure out what kind of company my brother keeps.”

“You were a bit rude.”

Pidge sighed “I know, I know. I don’t know, I got jealous I guess, Keith gets to know Matt and see him all the time, I rarely hear from him and when I do it’s always just stupid small talk.”

“Wait so this Keith guy who was waitstaff at the gala is a friend of Matt’s?” Shiro asked.

“Yeah. He was cool, I really liked him.” Hunk cut in.

“Apparently so did Lance.” Pidge snorted.

“He was just interesting!” Lance said defensively.

“Oh, _interesting_?” Shiro laughed “Is that what the kids are calling it these days?”

Lance could tell you that he _most certainly_ did not blush like a middle schooler at that. 

\--

Keith had become Matt’s roommate. Matt had left his last apartment for one that was closer to both school and to work, but he needed a roommate to help him pay rent and well Keith figured it was time to move out of Coran and Alfor’s house, he was nineteen now after all and Coran and Alfor shouldn’t have to be responsible for him. So, he agreed to move in with Matt.

Keith’s former foster parents cried when he announced that he was moving out, but they supported him nonetheless with a request that he come over for dinner at least once a week. Keith of course, agreed.

But the thing was Keith and Matt’s apartment was a complete shit hole. They’d barely been living there a month when there was a huge water break flooding the building and leaving Keith and Lance with no place to live.

“It’ll be fixed in a week or two,” The grumpy landlord told them.

“But we have nowhere to live!” Matt protested.

“Go on vacation for a while or something.” The landlord shrugged before walking away.

Matt sighed “Are you sure we can’t stay with your parents.”

“I mean we could,” Keith sighed “But they’re housing a bunch of people for that science fiction convention for old people they’re obsessed with. Unless you’d like to spend a week with a bunch of old people who only talk about how they’d like to get abducted by aliens.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Matt shrugged “I like aliens.”

“Yeah, but we’d have to sleep on the floor, plus the alien people talk about probing, like _a lot_.”

Matt made a face “Okay so let’s not stay with your parents.”

“Okay, but where the hell are we supposed to go then?” Keith sighed.

“Well, we do have some leave from work we could use if we wanted to go on vacation?” Matt suggested.

“But not enough money for a real vacation.”

“True,” Matt sighed and there was a quiet moment while they thought before Matt broke it straightening up “Well…” He started “there is somewhere we _could_ go I suppose.”

“Where?”

“My sister, she asked to me come stay with her in the city for a while this summer, I didn’t turn her down, but we both knew I wasn’t going to accept either.” Matt shrugged “I can ask if the offer still stands?”

“If you’re comfortable with that,” Keith said gently.

“Yeah, I mean we need somewhere to stay, and who knows maybe something good will come out of it,” Matt said like he didn’t dare to hope for such a thing.

“Okay then.”

“I’ll talk to her, but even if she says yes, we still have to take time off work, I don’t even know if we could on such short notice, and we need somewhere to stay tonight.”

“I’ll call to talk to Kolivan, he’ll probably let us take off, they wanted to put the newest dancers out there more. Maybe this will be a chance for them to fill in our spots for a while. And we could stay at Coran and Alfor’s tonight, the alien people aren’t getting there until tomorrow morning so as long as we’re out early enough it should be fine.”

“Okay, that’s great I’ll call Pidge and you can call Kolivan about taking time off.”

“Sure, that sounds like a plan.”

\--

“What’s wrong?” Lance asked.

They’d all been hanging out for the first time in a while, everyone had been very busy, so this was the first time in like a month since the Voltron Gala that they’d all been in New York together. They’d taken this opportunity to do their favorite tradition which was order Chinese takeout and play board games.

However, halfway through a very intense game of Uno, Pidge had gotten a call which was apparently important enough to abandon them in the middle of a game.

She came back fifteen minutes later looking troubled.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Pidge said crossing her arms “It’s just…that was my brother.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, he said his apartment is flooded and he asked if he and his roommate could come and stay with me for a while.”

“What did you say?” Hunk asked gently.

“Well, I said of course he could stay. It just sucks a little that he’s only coming to visit because he has nowhere else to go.”

“Well who knows, maybe this will be a step forward in your relationship,” Shiro said reassuringly.

“Maybe,” Pidge shrugged “I hope so…”

\--

“Pidge you should stop pacing, you’re going to make Hunk sick,” Allura said in her gentle but firm way.

“He’s our brother Katie, I don’t think he’s going to eat you,” Shiro said.

“Ugh I’m just so nervous, I can’t even remember the last time I saw Matt face-to-face.”

“He’s still your brother Pidge, the fact that you’re not close anymore doesn’t change that. I understand why you’re nervous, but you don’t have to be afraid.”

“But what if he hates me!”

“Do you really think he hates you?” Lance asked Pidge calmly.

“Well… no.”

“Then there you go, nothing to be nervous about.”

Pidge sighed “Thanks Lance, you’re an idiot and that should have been the wrong thing to say but somehow, it helped.”

“That’s what I’m here for Pidge.” Lance laughed.

There was a ring through Pidge’s apartment as the buzzer went off, “ _Ms. Holt, the guests you were expecting are here, Matt Holt_?” a voice crackled through the speaker.

“Yes, thanks Eliza, send them up,” Pidge spoke into the speaker.

Pidge jumped back bouncing nervously “How long does it take a person to take the elevator exactly? Why have I never counted?”

The was a sound outside the door and Pidge pulled it open just as a man, presumedly Matt was about to knock.

“Hey Pidge,” Matt smiled though he seemed a tad nervous too.

“Hey Matt, come in.” She beckoned them inside “I have friends here, I hope that’s okay.”

“No problem, you let me bring my friend, so I have no complaints.”

“Keith,” Pidge greeted “I remember you, it’s good to see you again. I didn’t realize you were Matt’s roommate though.”

“Oh yeah, we just moved in together,” Keith replied.

Matt chuckled “He was finally ready to move out of his parents’ place.”

“They’re not my parents—” Keith started but Matt quickly cut in like this was something he was used to.

“Not your parents, yeah, yeah. I know, but you were living under the same roof and they raised you,”

“Only for a few years.”

“Still your parents.”

Keith rolled his eyes “If that was the criteria for being someone’s parent I’d be yours.”

“No way,”

“Yeah, l have definitely been raising you for the past few years and we live under the same roof.”

“A roof that is now very water damaged.”

“Yeah, so what the fuck happened with that?” Pidge asked cutting in.

Matt sighed “There was some issue with the plumbing or a water break or something in our apartment complex, I’m hazy on the details, but the entire place flooded except for the top few floors and unfortunately we live on the second floor and our place got ruined.”

“Oh jeez,” Pidge frowned “that sucks, what about all your stuff?”

“We salvaged what we could and stashed it in Keith’s parents’—” He paused and rolled his eyes before correcting himself “Keith’s _not_ parents’ garage. But a lot of our shit got ruined. Keith’s not parents have offered to help us replace the essentials though, so it’ll be fine.”

“Still not okay with that,” Keith grumbled.

Matt nudged his friend “Hey you don’t let them cover your tuition or rent, you’ve got to let them do something to help before they kidnap you and keep you in the basement forever so they can be sure you’re safe.”

Keith crossed his arms with a huff but didn’t reply.

“Oh,” Pidge said “I should get your bags put away and stuff. Let me introduce you to my friends first then I’ll show you your rooms.”

“Sure,” Matt said easily.

“Okay so Keith you met some of them, Matt you already know Shiro, obviously, since he’s our brother.”

Shiro waved “Hey Matt it’s great to see you again.”

Matt let Shiro pull him into a brief hug before stepping back, Shiro then turned to Keith “And I guess Katie already said it but I’m Shiro.” He smiled kindly holding out his hand to shake.

“Katie?” Keith asked.

“Oh yeah, Pidge.” Shiro shrugged “It’s her nickname, I’ve always called her Katie though.”

Lance watched as Keith shook his hand without doing a double-take or cringing away from the prosthetic. That made Lance respect the guy a lot, most people treated Shiro differently after noticing his arm.

“Oh, okay. It’s nice to meet you too,”

“I’ve got to say, Keith, you seem really familiar, have we met before?”

“Probably not,” Keith shrugged “I wouldn’t say we run in the same circles.”

“Maybe not now, but where did you grow up? I may have met you when I was younger.” Shiro said curiously.

“Oh… well, I didn’t really grow up anywhere, I was in foster care, so I moved from place to place, mostly around the east coast though.”

“Actually, I was in foster care too.” Shiro said, “Maybe we were in a home together at one point?”

“Well, maybe. I didn’t stick in homes for long especially homes with other foster kids, so if we were in a home together, I doubt I’d remember it, sorry.”

“Oh, that’s totally fine.” Shiro replied in an easy way “I was just wondering why you seemed so familiar.”

“So who are your other friend’s Pidge?” Matt cut in, Lance didn’t miss the grateful look Keith shot Matt, foster care didn’t seem to be a topic Keith was too keen on talking about.

“Oh well, this is Hunk, Allura, and Lance.”

“Guys, in case you didn’t catch it already, this is my brother Matt and his friend Keith.”

“Well I met Keith already,” Hunk smiled warmly “It’s great to see you again man, and it’s great to meet you, Matt.”

Allura greeted them in her perfectly polite way, and then it was Lance’s turn “It’s nice to meet you,” Keith said offhandedly to Lance and he frowned offended.

“We’ve met.”

“Oh, right.” Keith shrugged “I forgot.”

Lance didn’t believe that for once second and he felt a little hurt honesty, not only did Keith never text him as he’d promised, he also didn’t reply to the text Lance had sent, and now he was pretending to have forgotten meeting? What a dick, Lance deserved better than wasting his time on a guy like that.

Lance glared “Oh I’m sure you did.”

\--

“What’s your deal man?” Hunk asked pulling Lance aside later “You’ve been pretty rude to Keith.”

Lance crossed his arms defensively “He was rude to me first!”

“How?” Hunk asked.

“He pretended not to remember me!”

“Have you considered that maybe he really did just forget meeting you?”

“No one forgets meeting me!”

Hunk sighed “Okay, yes I suppose you are pretty memorable, mostly for your tendency to act bitchy to strangers for no reason.”

“I do not act bitchy! People just don’t understand my humor.”

“My point is that there’s probably a perfectly good reason for why Keith doesn’t remember you.”

“Or for why he pretending he doesn’t remember me!”

“Yes, Lance, that too.” Hunk replied exasperated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol, yes I'm finally back with this story. Ik nobody's reading it as of right now but I still really like it. 
> 
> If you care about my Klance fics I'm currently working on a sequel fic to my story All My Flowers Grew Back as Thorns which is called True Love Has Nothing to Do With Roses, so when I'm not updating this fic it's cause I'm working on the other one.


	3. Beautiful Chaos

Shiro was in the kitchen washing dishes while Pidge sat on the counter drying as Shiro passed them to her. They were chatting easily, Matt sat at the table watching them with a frown.

“You alright?” Keith asked nudging his friend.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s just a little awkward being with them after so long.”

“I’m sure it’ll get easier,”

“Maybe,” Matt shrugged.

“Well,” Keith shrugged “I’m going out, wanna come? Might make you feel better”

“Where are you going?” Matt asked as Keith headed towards the door.

Keith shrugged “I don’t know.”

“Then I’ll stay. You can’t just wander around in the city at night, you could get kidnapped.” Matt said seriously.

“I think I’ll be fine,”

“Keith!”

Keith ignored him and Matt turned desperately to Shiro and Pidge interrupting their chatting “Could you guys please tell Keith that it’s not safe for him to wander alone,”

“Do you know your way around?” Shiro asked.

“Yeah, I lived here once.”

“Then you’ll probably be okay,”

“You were supposed to tell him it’s not okay,” Matt sighed.

“You’re as overprotective as Afor and Coran,” Keith rolled his eyes.

“That’s because you’ve spent a large chunk of your life getting the shit beat out of you.”

“Not my fault,” Keith shrugged.

“Totally your fault.”

“Wait who’s Alfor and Coran?” Pidge asked curiously.

“Keith’s parents,” Matt replied.

“They’re not my parents,” Keith reminded him.

“They’re Keith’s ex-foster parents,” Matt sighed correcting himself “they had Keith stay with them even after he aged out of the foster system, so they’re basically his parents.”

“They’re not my parents, my parents are dead,” he paused before quickly adding “well probably.”

Shiro frowned “I’m sorry,”

Normally Keith would have bitten someone’s head off for saying that but Shiro seemed like he genuinely meant it so Keith just shrugged it off “Thanks, it’s fine though, I don’t really remember them.” he mumbled.

He straightened up before anyone else could pity him “I’m going,” Keith told Matt “I won’t start any fights I swear.”

“You better not or I’m sending you back home to live with your parents' alien geeks.”

“Fuck you,” Keith said over his shoulder before slipping out the door.

\--

Keith didn’t really have any destination in mind when he left, he had however intended to leave the building. But going down the hall he found a sign pointing towards the roof and he was overwhelmed with the need to go. Keith loved being places like that, especially the roof of a building this tall would be perfect.

Thankfully Pidge’s apartment (though it felt wrong to call her place an apartment because Keith and Matt lived in an apartment and it was the size of Pidge’s bathroom, Pidge’s was definitely more of a penthouse) was close to the top of the building. Keith climbed a few flights of stairs while wondering if you could call an apartment a penthouse if it wasn’t on the top floor.

Keith reached the door to the roof and stepped outside, it was nicer than any roof Keith had ever seen with a pool on the far side and a thriving rooftop garden and comfy looking chairs and tables. There were lights strung up everywhere making everything look like some cheesy romance scene from a movie.

Keith’s first thought was to head right over to the edge and look over to see exactly how high he was because that was who Keith was—but his reckless thoughts were cut off when he registered the sound of music coming from somewhere, Keith paused listening to sound of soft guitar and a voice singing sweetly.

Now Keith _really_ felt like he was in a cheesy romance movie, but he couldn’t stop himself from following the sound of the music.

_“Why do I feel like an interlude? Can’t even take myself seriously. How could I expect you to look at me, and see somebody? When I’m just an interlude to you.”_

Keith kept walking until he came to a more secluded part of the roof where flowers grew and the soft light from overhead was dimer here, enough to see the city better, skyscrapers stretching up to the sky.

_“Without heartbreak songs, I would have cried to the sound of the sink dripping, and someone screaming in the distance. Til I realized that someone was me, I guess my mama lied when she said I’d be somebody. I’m just an interlude, I know I’m not for you, but I thought you were my beginning in truth. I’m just your interlude.”_

Keith turned the corner and he was met by a man sitting cross-legged on the ground, old t-shirt hanging loosely from his frame, and a guitar on his lap. The man looked up and Keith realized that it was Lance.

“Oh,” Lance said immediately ceasing his strumming mouth open.

“Sorry,” Keith said quickly “I didn’t mean to scare you, I didn’t realize anyone was up here and then I heard singing… guess I became kind of stalker-ish.”

“Uh, a little bit.” Lance said shaking off his surprise “But it’s fine.”

“You live in this building too, right?” Keith asked.

“Yeah, well sometimes, it’s rare that I’m in New York much these days, I do most of my recording for my next album in LA, so I haven’t been here in a while.”

“Was the song you were singing one of yours for your album?”

“Uh, no, I mean well… it’s my song but it’s not for my album.”

“Why not?”

Lance shrugged “It’s just not the kind of music I put out.”

“But it’s really good,”

Lance blushed slightly in the warm light “Thanks, but it’s just not the music to go with my image.”

Keith moved tentatively taking a seat beside Lance “Maybe it’s because I pole dance for a living so I’m not exactly living the same type of life as you, but I don’t see why you have to make music to adhere to a specific image, why can’t your image be yourself?”

“Well the world doesn’t need another Ed Sheeran guy playing guitar, and they don’t need me to be myself, they want Lance Mclain, not plain old Lance.” He shook his head “I don’t even know why I’m telling you this, you’re kind of a dick.”

“How am I a dick?”

“You pretended not to remember me!” Lance crossed his arms.

“Oh,” Keith said looking down embarrassed, “I just panicked a little, I completely ghosted you and I felt bad about it, so I just kind of pretended not to know you.”

“Okay, but why did you ghost me?”

“I didn’t see myself in a place to make new friends or invite new people into my life,” Keith shrugged “I never thought I’d see you again so I didn’t think ghosting you would matter.”

“Why don’t you want more friends? Isn’t that the best part of life, getting to meet all sorts of people?”

“Not for me,” Keith shrugged.

“Oh, well now that you’re stuck here.” Lance said “The chances of you not becoming friends with everyone is very slim, I mean it’s impossible not to be Hunk’s friend. I don’t think he’s ever met a person who he didn’t become friends with.”

“Yeah, Hunk is really nice. I do like him.”

“See you’re already friends with him without even trying.”

“I guess I am.”

“If you’re against friendship, how did you become such close friends with Matt? Or was that a different time when you were open to relationships” Lance asked.

“It was a different time I guess, but more because I wasn’t open to having any friends at all until Matt somehow forced his way into my life, it was a surprise honestly. He works in the math center at our school and I was struggling with some shit we were learning so I went to get some help and he was the tutor. He was annoying, but he was also really into space and conspiracy theory kind of things which I liked too, so we decided to meet up to watch some documentaries together, eventually, I joined him working at the club and the rest is history I guess. It just kind of happened.”

“I understand that. I think the best people just kind of wind up in your life when you’re not expecting it, whether you like it or not. When I came into the entertainment industry I was young and had no idea what was going on, I was really naïve and I could have had everything ruined for me but somehow Hunk and my other friends wound up in my life and it was so much easier navigating everything together. I never saw it coming but I’m so glad to have them.”

“They seem like really cool people, awfully down to earth for celebrities,” Keith said.

Lance laughed lightly at that “I should be offended, but I’ve met enough famous people to know that you’re right. I don’t know, I guess like we’re famous but none of us were born into it, well except Allura, her mother was a pretty big model. But we’re all kind of dorks, even Allura. It’s hard to get too vain or snobby when you have your friends reminding you how you’re a giant nerd and idiot all the time.”

“That’s nice, having people to ground you. I think that’s important otherwise you never know where you’ll end up.”

“That was kind of profound.” Lance laughed.

Keith rolled his eyes “Ugh,”

“Do you have something against profound?”

“We’ve only had two full conversations Lance, but I feel like you should be aware of the fact that I have something against a lot of things.”

“That’s true what were the other things? New York City and… The Hunger Games?”

“I don’t really have anything against The Hunger Games,”

“But you do have something against New York City?”

“No, well, I don’t know. I have a… complicated relationship with this place. I was born here.”

“I remember, you mentioned that.”

“Yeah I did,” Keith shrugged “Maybe staying here for a little while will change my mind though.”

“I bet it will, I love it here. Everyone told me I should live mainly in LA, but I prefer it here, my friends and I kind of made New York our home base.”

“I can understand the appeal,” Keith said looking out at the city lights around them “but it feels like it’d be too easy to get lost here.”

“Not as easy as you’d think. There’s a sort of grid to the way everything’s set up, once you stick around for a little while it’s hard to get lost.”

“Yeah I mean I know my way around more or less, there’s just so much happening it feels like none of it makes sense.”

Lance smiled “It’s a perfect kind of chaos.”

“How can chaos be perfect? That’s just a mess.”

“Yeah, but sometimes the crazy messy things are the most beautiful.”

“I don’t see how that can be true.”

“Then you just haven’t seen the right chaos yet,” Lance replied with a shrug.

“I’ll have to take your word for it,”

“For now.”

Keith sighed in exasperation “Whatever you say.”

Lance laughed and they fell into a nice sort of silence, the sound of the city below them and the warmth of the string lights above made everything feel soft and easy.

In truth, Keith wasn’t used to easy, not in most aspects of his life but especially with forming relationships. It honestly felt like most of the relationships Keith did have were a fluke, he would never understand what Alfor and Coran saw in him, why they didn’t give up on Keith the first time he pulled a stupid stunt, or the second or the third, but they just didn’t and eventually Keith stopped rebelling as much. His whole friendship with Matt had started off easy enough but it took a while before Keith was really ready to open up much, they’d been through their fair share of troubles.

Somehow Lance made Keith feel like this could be easy, like he could just spend the rest of his life sitting up here with Lance while the city lived on below.

This thought startled Keith and he jumped up suddenly “I should probably get back, I’d originally planned to go out and Matt was convinced I was going to get murdered or kidnapped or something. He’ll probably be worried.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll see you around then Keith, goodnight.”

“Goodnight Lance,” Keith shot him a little smile before turning away and heading back down the stairs.

Keith couldn’t shake the feeling that he might be getting himself into more than he could handle with Lance, but even as he fell asleep that night the song Lance had been playing looped its way around his head, there was something addicting about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: I've been writing songs longer then I've been writing stories. The lyrics in this chapter I literally wrote in a couple of minutes out of stray ideas I had written in the back of my notebook.   
> I'm actually getting the same music business minor that Keith has in this story. AND Keith's school is based on a real university.


	4. Ghosting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a friendly favor to ask, if y'all catch any typos please let me know. I wrote this chapter a week ago but I've been so busy that I finally got around to kind of half-assing the editing and I'm going away for president's weekend so I wanted just to get this up before I leave. I'm gonna go pack now cause I leave in just two hours and should have done it ages ago, but hey that's life. 
> 
> Enjoy this chapter!! Love y'all <3

So, things with Keith weren’t completely different after that night on the roof. It’s not like they suddenly became best friends or suddenly fell in love, as much as Lance wished it was, life wasn’t a romance movie. Things sadly don’t work like that.

But Keith and Lance did form some sort of tentative relationship, Lance would stop by to visit Pidge like he always did every morning on his way up from the gym and sometimes Keith would be there eating breakfast or leaning over his laptop with earbuds in, and sometimes Keith would let Lance sit with him while he ate, or take his earbuds out to talk. Then sometimes turned into all the time and Keith stopped putting his earbuds in at all. Lance saw this for what it was, Keith would never admit it, but this was an open invitation for Lance to come talk.

Keith didn’t mention the whole “I don’t want to make real friends” thing again, which Lance was okay with, because there’s no denying that they had become friends.

Keith didn’t find Lance on the roof again, they didn’t hold any personal conversations, and Keith didn’t bring up Lance’s troubles with his music and the songs he wrote that would never see the light of day, so Lance didn’t say anything about Keith’s love-hate sort of relationship with New York City, though Lance was dying to know if Keith had found the beauty in the chaos yet.

Lance guessed that by keeping their relationship casual Keith was keeping at bay the possibility of them becoming something deeper, it was clear he didn’t want that, he didn’t want somebody to _know_ him, they both knew Lance could be that person, so they said nothing, kept topics easy and casual. No one thought twice about it. Keith spent more time with Matt, Hunk, Pidge, and Shiro then he did with Lance, he’d become good friends with everyone just like Lance had predicted, Shiro especially had taken a liking to Keith.

It was all just fine, Lance would never admit any different to anyone, not even himself. But when Lance visited Pidge’s apartment and saw Keith laughing easily with Pidge over some weird documentary that he and the Holt sibling’s were into, Lance felt a slight ache in his chest, the same tight feeling of missing someone he felt when he thought of his family who he hadn’t seen in months. Except Lance was unsure how he could miss somebody who was right there, much less somebody he barely knew.

But he did miss Keith, at night he dreamed of that night on the roof and how different and soft Keith looked in the light, Lance dreamed of Keith’s dry comments on the night they met and the small smirk that hid behind his sarcasm.

Lance would never tell Keith of this though, Keith had made it clear, he didn’t want a deep relationship. Lance would survive, plus the guy would only be around for another ten days or so and then it was unlikely that Lance would ever see him again, there was no use putting feelings into something that would ultimately end with Keith ghosting Lance again as soon as his and Matt’s apartment was fixed up and they could go back to Jersey.

\--

“We should have a party,” Allura said bursting into Pidge’s apartment one Saturday afternoon.

It was their typical favorite sort of weekend with the addition of Matt, everyone was gathered in Pidge’s living room just chilling out, chatting and enjoying the rare day of no work. Weekends were Lance’s favorite though unfortunately, they didn’t get these weekends very often. Usually, someone was away or working. They didn’t exactly have traditional jobs which meant that weekends didn’t always mean a day off.

Matt looked up startled by Allura’s sudden enthusiastic entrance but no one else batted an eye. Allura loved parties and get-togethers in general. She came in every other week with a new party she wanted to throw, bursting with excitement. Allura was a people person if there ever was one. The Voltron Gala, which was everyone knew was one of the biggest Galas every year, was mostly credited to Allura and her mother Ursuline D’Altea.

“What type of party?” Pidge asked wearily.

“Just a simple one,” Allura shrugged.

Pidge and Shiro exchanged a look, _simple_ did not mean the same thing to Allura as it did to most people.

“We could throw it on the roof! We haven’t done that this summer, isn’t it time for a rooftop party?” She clapped her hands together.

“Sounds great to me,” Lance said, his love for parties was second only to Allura’s.

Pidge frowned “You can throw the party under one condition; I have to approve your guest list before you send out any invites.”

“Okay, okay.” Allura agreed “Matt and Keith have to come!” She said excitedly she turned to Matt “You haven’t lived until you’ve been to one of my rooftop parties.”

“Sure, sounds fun,” Matt said, “Though I don’t know if Keith will be down for it, he’s not a party person.”

Keith was currently absent but that wasn’t unusual, he spent a good deal of time out in the city doing lord knows what.

“Don’t you both work at a club? How can he not enjoy partying?”

Matt shrugged “He likes performing and being able to pay his tuition, that’s the only reason he works there. Though I guess he has become a bit fond of working at Blade, but he never hangs out after to party like most of the employees do.”

“Well, I hope he’ll come to the party, it will be nice. If he hates it, he could always just take the lift downstairs and be out of there in a matter of minutes, yes?” Allura pointed out.

“True,” Matt nodded “I’ll ask him about it.”

“Perfect,” Allura smiled brightly. “Well I’ve got to get to planning, I want to get most of it done before I’m swamped with business on Monday. See you all later!” She waved goodbye and left in the same flurry of excitement with which she’d entered.

\--

A few hours after Allura’s announcement of a party Keith returned to Pidge’s apartment looking slightly sunburned and windswept.

“Hey,” Matt waved to his friend, he’d spent most of the day playing video games with Pidge. Lance wondered if that meant they’d begun to work things out between them.

“Hi,”

“Where have you been?” Matt asked.

Keith shrugged “Out,”

“I’m not your dads,” Matt rolled his eyes “you can tell me you know.”

“They’re not my dads or my parents.” Keith corrected stiffly before disappearing down the hall.

Hunk raised his eyebrows “He’s in a bad mood today. Is he okay?”

Matt snorted “ _That_ was not Keith in a bad mood, that was Keith in his normal mood. I’ve actually been surprised by how good of a mood he’s been in since we’ve been staying here. He’s not usually that friendly with me, but to new people, he’s more often than not a downright dick.”

“Really?” Shiro said, “He’s a bit sarcastic I’ve noticed but he never came off as rude.”

“Yeah, I guess he likes you guys.” Matt said, “if he didn’t, you’d probably have very different opinions on him.” Matt shook his head “Keith has mostly been banned from doing private shows at Blade for anyone except the few regulars because of his attitude. I actually have a game with the other employees there to bet on how many of the complaints are about his fucking attitude.”

“Wow,” Pidge laughed “that honestly makes me like him even more.”

“Of course, it does.” Matt rolled his eyes “You know, I’m starting to think that the two of you together are more than I can handle.”

“Oh definitely,” Pidge laughed poking her brother playfully.

“I have a question,” Hunk cut in.

“Fire away.”

“Okay, this isn’t meant to be judgy, I’m just wondering, if his behavior towards customers is so bad why does Keith still work there? Wouldn’t a club only want employees who are likable.” Hunk asked tentatively, seemingly scared to come off rude.

“Oh, that’s a valid question. Keith has been in deep trouble because of his attitude, but Kolivan the club’s manager would _never_ fire him because despite his attitude he makes up for it more than enough. Keith’s an incredible dancer, the best at Blade by far. Half the people that come to the club come for him.”

“Wow, that’s cool.” Hunk said, “I didn’t realize he’s super talented. He hasn’t talked about working there like he’s really good at it, it’s seemed to me like dancing was just a way to pay his college tuition.”

Matt rolled his eyes “That’s the worst part, it is. Of course, he enjoys dancing, but he just loves performing in general. This is just the easiest most practical way to do it while earning the money for his degree.”

“What kind of performing does Keith do, besides dancing?” Lance asked speaking for the first time in a while, Matt turned to face him.

“Honestly,” Matt frowned “nothing anymore besides work. I think he used to make music, I mean he’s getting his degree in it. But he doesn’t do anything now besides the required producing for his classes. If it hadn’t been for his parents—” Matt paused correcting himself “I mean Alfor and Coran pushing him to pursue a degree in music he would have gone to school to become a social worker.” He made a face “I should probably stop talking about him now he’ll get mad at me if he finds out. He doesn’t like it when I tell people all about him.”

“You do that a lot?” Lance chuckled.

“Oh yeah, he’s my best friend, he’s been there for me whenever I needed him. I love him and like to tell people about him, Keith hates it.”

“I get that,” Hunk smiled “Lance has been my best friend for a long time, I tell people I meet all about him too.”

“That’s not the same,” Lance crossed his arms, “You tell people embarrassing stories about me!” 

“They’re not embarrassing, they’re cute!” Hunk protested.

“I don’t want to be cute, you single-handedly ruin my image. My publicist hates you.”

“Your publicist hates everyone, Lance, she even hates you.”

“That’s… admittedly true.” Lance said sheepishly “But she’s good at her job so I don’t care that much.”

“I don’t like her,” Pidge said feeling the need to insert her opinion.

“Of course not, that’s only because you managed to snag an incredibly nice and talented publicist, you’re a privileged little shit.”

Lance should have thought it through before saying that because a second later he was tackled by a shrieking Pidge armed with a pillow, the situation quickly devolved into a messy pillow fight and Lance was happy to be attacked by a vicious Pidge rather than dwell on the thoughts in his brain that had been brought up from Matt talking about Keith’s dancing. Those images _better_ not be in his dreams tonight.


	5. how do you know I'm breathing, when I'm holding my breath?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from Touch It by Ariana Grande

Keith was probably in over his head, he could admit that. Well no, actually he couldn’t which was why he ran his feet pounding on the pavement and breath ragged in the humid summer air.

For some reason, his brain had convinced that it would be a good idea to visit some of the places he used to go when he lived in New York. He’d started towards a familiar street before suddenly turning around and running down block after block until he reached Pidge’s building. He didn’t stop running even as he passed through the front doors and into the lobby, he headed for the stairwell taking the steps two at a time.

Keith didn’t stop, not until he was forced to as he barreled right into Lance outside Pidge’s apartment.

“Whoa!” Lance exclaimed as he stumbled backward. Grabbing Keith’s arms to stop them from falling.

Lance steadied them and Keith was suddenly struck by the fact that Lance was taller than him, considerably so. Lance was pretty thin. For this reason, Keith hadn’t thought of Lance as being strong, but his hands held Keith up easily slowing his forward momentum. For some reason this realization completely fucked Keith up, he was already out of it this particular day and this unbidden and weird revelation did nothing to help.

“Are you okay?” Lance asked frowning slightly, his hands still firmly on Keith's forearms.

“Yeah, yeah, I was just going a bit too fast,” Keith said breathlessly

“I guess my teachers were right when they said not to run in the halls.”

Keith didn’t laugh at Lance’s joke, he just nodded “Right…” Keith brushed past Lance heading towards Pidge’s front door.

“Are you going to the party Allura’s throwing?” Lance asked quickly.

Keith paused turning to face Lance again. “I don’t know,”

“You should come.”

Keith hesitated for a moment before nodding “Okay,”

“Cool,” Lance shot Keith a charming smile.

“Right, cool,” Keith repeated with much less enthusiasm. “I’ll see you later Lance.”

“See you,” Lanced waved as Keith disappeared into Pidge’s apartment.

\--

“I know you don’t want to, but you should definitely go to Allura’s party. It’ll be a lot of fun, and you don’t have to stay long, just check it out. From what I hear Allura’s parties are epic.”

“I’ll go,”

“And Hunk’s making the food so it’ll be great—” Matt stopped suddenly processing Keith’s response, he was expecting it to take a lot more convincing “wait what?”

“I said I’ll go,”

“Why?”

Keith raised an eyebrow “Does it matter? I thought you wanted me to go.”

“I do, it’s just unlike you to agree.”

“Well, I did.”

“But why?”

Keith sighed sounding a little too much like Pidge for Matt’s liking “Because I bumped into Lance in the hall and he asked if I was going and I accidentally agreed to go.”

Matt snorted “How did you _accidentally_ agree?”

“Lance is very convincing! I was running.” Keith huffed irritably.

“I don’t know what running has t do with anything, but I think you mean that Lance is very cute,” Matt replied wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Keith glowered at his friend “He just caught me surprise, that’s all!”

“You sound defensive,” Matt pointed out.

“You know what, go fuck yourself straight to hell Matt!” Keith replied suddenly and a bit dramatically “We aren’t friends anymore, I’m done!” Keith said sharply getting up and stalking off towards his room.

“Um, is everything alright?” A voice asked timidly from behind Matt.

He spun to see Pidge and Hunk standing uncertainly in the doorway.

“Oh yeah,” Matt said to them, waving his hand dismissively. “Keith just got pissed at me.”

“But he said he was done being friends with you?” Hunk asked his voice rising in a nervous question.

Matt shook his head “Nah, Keith has impulse issues, he insists he’s leaving every few weeks, he doesn’t mean it.”

“Oh,” Hunk said relieved “so that wasn’t a big deal?”

“Nope,” Matt shrugged. “But guess what, Keith agreed to go to Allura’s party!”

“What? Yay!” Hunk said grabbing Pidge’s arm excitedly “I thought you said it was unlikely he’d want to go.”

“Yeah…” Matt frowned “I’m a little confused about that part, I thought he wouldn’t be down for it in a million years. But I didn’t even have to try to convince him, he said Lance asked him and he accidentally agreed.”

“How on earth do you ‘accidentally’ agree?” Pidge asked skeptically.

Matt shrugged “I think Keith thinks Lance is cute and Lance must have managed to surprise him and fluster him enough to agree.”

Hunk clapped his hands together in excitement “Do you think Keith is into Lance?”

“I mean, I never really know with Keith, but he definitely thinks Lance is hot.”

“Oh my god, perfect!”

“How so?”

“Lance met Keith after the gala and wouldn’t shut up about him for weeks, but Keith ghosted him I guess. Lance was upset about it actually, he was pissed when you guys first showed up here. Guess they worked it out though.” Hunk shrugged.

“Hm, I didn’t know that. Keith didn’t mention anything about Lance, but I’m not surprised.”

“Maybe, they’ll get together!” Hunk said hopefully “Lance hasn’t been with anyone in forever.”

“It’d be cute,” Matt admitted, “but I wouldn’t put your money on it, Keith doesn’t do relationships.”

Pidge made a dramatic retching noise “And neither do I, I’m out if we’re talking about love lives.”

Matt chuckled to himself as Pidge departed, she hadn’t changed much at all.

\--

Lance was with his producer in a local studio, they’d been working on the same song for days now but no matter what they did nothing sounded good enough to Lance. He was frustrated and his producer was frustrated. But it just wasn’t _right_. It didn’t matter how they shaped and changed the song; Lance was pretty sure he’d never be happy with it at this point.

“What is your deal?” His producer Mark snapped eventually after Lance shot down yet another idea.

“It’s just not a good song.”

“It’s a fine song,” Mark argued.

“Exactly!” Lance threw his hands in the air “I’m tired of songs that are ‘fine’. Everyone’s been going on about how my next album needs a Grammy nomination if I want to keep seeing real success and be remembered blah, blah, blah, but then I’m making shit like this! This song isn’t art, it’s just singing about hot girls and I’ve already done a million songs like that.”

“That’s the kind of music you make Lance.”

“Well, maybe I don’t want to anymore.”

Mark sighed in exasperation “Look, Lance, you better get your shit together and get over whatever identity crisis you’re going through, you’ve branded yourself. People like your music like this, why fuck with success? Let’s call it a day, we’ll meet back here tomorrow morning.”

Lance wanted to argue more but instead, he bit back the bitter feeling of oncoming tears and turned towards the door, leaving the recording studio in a rush.

\--

The truth was Keith had got to Lance, he hadn’t realized it until today but that conversation on the roof when they talked about Lance’s music. Keith had told him the stupid emotional and acoustic song Lance had been singing was good.

It was like Keith had planted a seed, now Lance couldn’t deny it anymore, he wanted to make music that was real, that was him. _Just Lance_ , not Lance Mclain pop star and heartthrob or whatever label he’d been given that particular week.

To deal with his inner conflict Lance turned to the place he usually did when he needed somewhere to think, the roof. During the night unless it was being used for an event it was most often empty and in summer Lance spent most his nights up there. After returning home from the studio Lance changed in sweats, grabbed his guitar and headed up.

To Lance’s surprise, the roof was already occupied. It only took him a moment to distinguish Keith, though he looked different than Lance had ever seen him. He was sprawled out on one of the stiff outdoor couches with a keyboard on his lap and an old laptop. Lance had spent enough time in recording studios to recognize the software as a music producing program of some sort, though Lance couldn’t have told you anything else about it.

Keith was thoroughly engrossed in whatever he was working on humming softly, Lance was surprised by his voice. If someone had asked him to guess what Keith’s voice sounded like Lance would have assumed it would be rough and more of an emo punk kind of sound, but Keith’s voice was actually warm and low, it had a certain bit of rasp to it but in a soft easy way.

“ _I’d like to think I would save you, if the floor started to crack. I wouldn’t want to hate you, but that’s just who I am. I wish I didn’t always do that in truth, wouldn’t break every heart. Would I save you? Or just steal your car?”_

“Wow,” Lance said before he could stop himself immediately breaking the quiet peacefulness.

Keith’s eyes snapped up and for a second he seemed surprised to see Lance for a moment but then he just shook his head with a small chuckle. “What?” he asked.

“Sorry for interrupting, I didn’t know you were up here. I guess we’re even now.” Lance shrugged and made his way over to where Keith sat throwing himself down on the couch and propping his guitar on the ground beside him.

“I guess we are,” Keith said quietly.

“You have a nice voice,” Lance noted.

“Oh,” Keith said in surprise, his pale cheeks turning slightly pink “Thanks,” he mumbled.

“Did you write the song you were singing?”

“Yeah, it’s part of a project I started for school, but I wound up not using it. I wanted to revisit it now I guess.”

“It’s really good, I liked that line about stealing a car. It’s kind of unexpected, a bit of a shock. That’s really interesting in a song, I wish I could make music like that…” Lance trailed off his earlier problems which had been put to the back of his mind by Keith’s singing suddenly returning in full force.

Taking in Lance’s expression something in Keith’s eyes softened and he pushed his keyboard off his lap shifting closer to Lance. “I’d say that you can make music like that, but based on the last conversation we had up here I’d say that’s not true?”

“No,” Lance sighed.

“Tell me about it,” Keith said simply

Lance paused for a moment before speaking quietly “I was in the studio today working on my next album. It’s a big deal, my third album it’s basically what will make or break me in the long run right? The first is exciting where I was just gaining attention and fans, the second was huge because by then I amassed a much bigger following and everyone got to be there for that, but now the third is the real test, am I good enough to keep people’s interest now that I’m not new anymore? On top of that my whole team is trying to push this album for Grammys. Everything down to the release date is shaped to make this an album that will get nominated…” Lance took a deep breath running his hands through his hair “The problem is the album is shit,” he said in a small voice.

“I don’t think anything you create could be shit Lance,” The sentient was surprisingly sweet for Keith.

Lance chuckled bitterly looking up to meet Keith's eyes “Thank you, really but it’s not true. All the songs on the album are the same stupid songs about love but only the basic ‘oh you’re kind of hot love’, sex and going to the club. Sure I love a stupid bop about sex and dancing and all that stupid pop shit, as a teen, I thrived on that kind of music, but it shouldn’t be _every_ song. If I as the artist am sick of it, what about the listeners? I want to make something that’s actually real!”

Keith surveyed Lance for a quiet moment before suddenly straightening up and grabbing his keyboard “Okay then, let’s make something then.”

“I- what?” Lance said confused.

“You want to make something real, let’s do it. I may not be to the standards of the people you usually work with, but I am going to school for music,”

“You can produce?”

“Yeah,”

Lance hesitated for a still moment before nodding “Okay, how do we do this then?”

“Well, where do you usually start when working on a song?”

“Normally someone on my team has a bunch of concepts and I get to choose which one I like best and we work from there, sometimes I can bring in my own concepts but usually they aren’t what my team wants.”

“Okay well I’m not your team, choose your own concept.”

“I… I don’t really have one, I don’t get to do this a lot. It’s not cool to write songs about not being cool.” Lance shrugged.

“Perfect,” Keith said grabbing his phone and opening the notes app.

“What?” Lance asked a little lost.

“That’s the concept, what you said, how it’s not cool be seen as less than perfect and put together and cool.”

“Oh… that’s good.”

Keith raised an eyebrow “Well praise yourself then, you came up with it.” Keith switched on his keyboard and started playing some random chords “How do you want it to sound?”

“Uh,” Lance said an idea forming in his head “high, soft, kind of twinkly and lullaby-ish but more of a staccato style, with an electronic feel.”

Keith frowned and Lance was just about to apologize for his vague explanation but before he could Keith began playing a rough melody and somehow it was perfect.

“Like that?”

“Yes!” Lance said excitement seeping in his voice.

Keith laughed “Okay let’s start on the first verse, or we could do the chorus first...”

\--

By the time they’d finished the song, it was well into the night and Lance was rubbing his eyes tiredly. But despite his exhaustion, he was ecstatic. Lance and Keith had managed to not only completely write but produce a demo of an entire song in only a few hours, a feat that normally took at least a day when Lance worked with his normal team.

The song was in Lance’s opinion perfect. For once his idea came out exactly like it sounded in his head, not like it usually happened when Lance’s ideas were turned into an over-produced and watered-down version of what he’d wanted. It was like Keith was able to read Lance’s mind and turn his thoughts into actual music.

As they packed up that night and went their separate ways Lance couldn’t wipe the smile off his face, they’d made a really good fucking song.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you could laugh nervously over these notes that's what I'd be doing right now. It hasn't been a full month since I last updated though so I deserve some credit for that.   
> I started working on this chapter weeks ago but then I didn't know what to do with it and decided to waste my valuable time writing an original story about the end of the world inspired by the Coronavirus, so hahahahahah... I hope we don't all die.  
> :( 
> 
> I wanted to include lyrics and stuff for the song Keith and Lance wrote in this chapter but unfortunately, while my characters wrote it, I actually haven't written the stupid song yet. I spent two minutes at my piano deciding how I wanted it to sound and the basic concept and that was it. sorry. But the full song will appear in future chapters and I'll actually produce it so you guys can all hear what it sounds like.
> 
> haha also fun fact: I got my first single released on Spotify (and other places) a couple of weeks ago, it's not related to this but I'm officially a verified artist, which I'm excited about and I just wanted to share!!


	6. and damn, your voice is all up in my head again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter title from "the way i used to" by Kelsea Ballerini

“So, what’s the dress code?” Lance asked nudging Allura playfully.

“Black-tie optional. It was on the invitation, you should know.” She responded not looking up from her phone which she was typing furiously on.

“Ah well, I didn’t read the invite. So not semiformal?”

She raised a single perfect eyebrow “Are you an amateur, Lance? You know if I want people to show up in semiformal then I have to say it’s black-tie optional instead, so people don’t show up in jeans. Because apparently, no one knows what semiformal is nowadays.”

Lance shrugged “true,”

“So, what do we need to do?” Lance asked spinning in a circle.

Allura had dragged them up to the roof to help her prepare for the party tonight, she had people hired to take care of food and music, but she always decorated and set up herself because she didn’t trust other people. So that was how everyone ended helping her decorate at six as the sun was rising on a Saturday morning.

Even Keith and Matt had even been dragged along despite Keith protests. You couldn’t really argue with Allura, she could be terrifying sometimes. Lance wouldn’t be surprised if she’d been a military drill instructor or something in a past life because she could be brutal.

“I need someone capable to hang the string lights firstly,”

Pidge’s hand immediately shot into the air and Allura glared “Absolutely not, I do not want you getting a concussion because you fell off the ladder.”

“I won’t fall off!” Pidge said indignantly.

“I’ll do it,” Shiro cut in

“Good thank you, Matt go hold the ladder for him.” Allura pointed them to the lights and turned to Hunk “Hunk could you get someone to help and move the furniture.

“Sure,” Hunk nodded “Keith do you think you can help me lift it? With your dancing, you have to be pretty strong right?

Keith shrugged “I hang off a pole, so I guess.”

They headed towards the furniture and Allura turned to Pidge and Lance who remained. “You two can help me with these decorations.”

Pidge still looked like she wanted to argue about being denied the chance to hang lights, but she knew better, sighing dramatically she followed Allura and Lance and they set to work.

Two hours later the roof looked amazing. Lance knew when it was dark out and the lights were on, it would look even more magical.

Allura spun in a slow circle clapping her hands together as she surveyed everything. “This is good!” She said excitedly. “Thanks guys, you can go now.”

“Oh good because I have an—”

“Interview later,” She finished for him “I know Lance. Go then, you have plenty of time.”

“Okay,” Lance started towards the door with a wave but just then it opened suddenly.

There was a moment of silence as a figure stepped through the door. It was a tall man with warm brown hair that perfectly complimented his dark skin, he had glasses perched on his nose and a kind smile.

Lance recognized him immediately and he felt his jaw drop in surprise.

“Hey,” The man greeted “When no one was around downstairs I figured you’d all be up here.”

There was another frozen moment of shocked quiet that was broken as Shiro dropped the lights he was holding throwing his arms around the man with a happy shout. “Adam!”

They held each other tightly and Lance turned to share a smile with his friends.

Eventually, Shiro let go of Adam and he went to greet everyone else passing around hugs.

“How’s my favorite brother-in-law?” Adam asked happily pulling Matt into a hug as he got to him “What are you even doing here? I haven’t seen you in forever!”

“Oh, our apartment flooded and Pidge is letting us stay here while it’s fixed.”

“We?”

“Oh yeah, this is my best friend and roommate Keith,” Matt said reaching behind him and pulling Keith over in a practiced way. “Stop trying to hide.” Matt nudged his friend.

“I’m not hiding,” Keith frowned.

Matt ignored him “Keith this is Shiro’s finance, Adam.”

“Nice to meet you, I didn’t realize Shiro was engaged,” Keith said shaking Adam’s hand.

“We keep it pretty quiet,” Shiro said to Keith “We’ll announce it after we get married but right now we don’t really want the whole world crashing our wedding.”

“Ah right, the whole celebrity thing, I forgot about that.” Keith nodded.

Shiro paused for a second before bursting into laughter “Oh god, of course you did. You know, I really like you, Keith.”

“Oh, uh thanks,” Keith said turning red.

Matt chuckled “I don’t think he knows how to respond to people liking him.”

“Well if Takashi likes you then I like you, Keith, once again, it’s great to meet you.”

Keith froze for a second, brow furrowing “Takashi?”

“Oh right,” Shiro laughed “That’s my first name, no one calls me that but Adam though.”

Keith didn’t respond his eyes widened in an emotion Lance didn’t recognize.

Lance exchanged a worried look with Allura and Shiro frowned stepping forward “Are you okay Keith?”

“Uh,” Keith shook his head “Yeah, yeah. It’s just… that’s my brother’s name.”

“Your brother?” Shiro asked his gaze softening “Oh, is he… you know…”

“Dead?” Keith asked. Shiro nodded and Keith just shrugged “No idea. I never knew him.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah. It’s fine. Sorry I was just surprised because I’ve never met anyone named Takashi before.” He paused uncomfortably rubbing the back of his neck “When I was uh… in foster care I used to dream about him coming to save me or something. I don’t know, it’s stupid… My mom never told me anything but his first name and then she left or died or whatever so. I had no way to find him. Sorry, you don’t need my tragic backstory…” Keith said blushing as he trailed off.

Shiro smiled kindly “No that’s so weird because I understand. Something similar happened to me. I have a little brother out there somewhere, but my mom left me with my dad and took off with him when my brother was still a baby. I never heard from my mom or him again, she’d probably off in the wilderness or something. She was a little weird.”

“Oh I’m sorry, that sucks.”

“Yeah it does, I guess you’d know.” Shiro chuckled a little “His name’s Akira, my brother. I still hope I’ll be able to find him one day though.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Keith said suddenly his jaw dropping.

“I… what?” Shiro said taken aback.

“My name’s Akira,” Keith said faintly.

“Oh my god!” Pidge whispered to Lance.

“It is?” Shiro asked

“Yeah,” Keith said “I- I um… Keith is my middle name, I go by it because I didn’t want to be bullied when I was younger. But yeah, my name’s Akira.”

“And you were born here, right? In the city?”

Keith nodded.

“And your mom’s name?”

Keith cleared his throat awkwardly “Uh, Krolia.”

“Oh my god. That’s my mother’s name. You’re my fucking brother!”

“No fucking way…” Keith said shocked.

Shiro laughed in disbelief but his excitement quickly turned to a frown. “She left you, mom did?”

“Don’t know, she was just gone one day. I barely even remember it.” Keith shrugged.

“And what about your dad?”

“He’s dead. I never knew him though.”

“Oh god, I’m sorry. I didn’t even know you were in the system.”

“Yeah, you didn’t know. So there was nothing you could have done.”

“Yeah, yeah… I guess not.” Shiro shook his head clearly still shocked “I can’t believe you’re my brother and you’re my brother’s best friend. You’ve been my brother’s best friend all this time!”

“Wait does that make me Keith’s brother?” Matt asked excitedly.

“Uh no,” Pidge rolled her eyes “That’s not how that works.”

“Why not?”

“Because Shiro’s adopted, duh.”

Matt crossed his arms “Well in my opinion, Keith now counts as my brother.”

“Well, then I’ll soon be committing Fratricide because you’re being annoying.”

“Is fratricide a thing?” Matt asked.

“Yeah, it’s when you kill a frat guy,” Lance said seriously.

“Shut up Lance.” Keith rolled his eyes

“Hey,” Lance said crossing his arms dramatically, “we wrote a song together, we bonded, you can’t be mean to me anymore.”

“You can’t tell me what to do.”

“Fine then!” Lance threw his arms in the air “then the bonding moment didn’t happen. Don’t remember it!”

“Sure Lance,” Keith rolled his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha I bet you totally didn't see that one coming... ok yeah, it was obvious. whatever.
> 
> The important thing is that I'm back! Can you believe that the last time I updated NOT EVEN A MONTH AGO life was normal?? Now the world is ending and I haven't left the house in a week. I hope everyone is staying safe and staying home!! For entertainment with everyone's self-isolation, I will be updating this fic weekly. 
> 
> I actually wrote this chapter weeks ago but I wanted to add to it, I just didn't... so I've decided to post it and post the other stuff as a separate chapter. 
> 
> So NEXT UP: a party!!!

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone, welcome if this is your first time reading one of my fics, and welcome back if you're maybe coming from one of my other fics. 
> 
> Before anyone yells at me for starting another fic when A Light Year Between Me and You isn't completed yet, let me say that I have finished writing it, I'm just posting the chapters over the next few weeks. So don't come for me y'all. 
> 
> anyway, this idea came to me during NaNoWriMo and I had to put off writing it until nano was over and I'd finished my project for it. But now this fic here and I really hope you guys enjoy this one as much as I do so far. 
> 
> also little note: this fic is inspired by Taylor Swift's Cruel Summer (which is my favorite song) also the time I lived in north jersey and the New York City skyline in the dark, specifically the veiw from the NJ turnpike. So lol that's the moodboard for this fic ig :)


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